


I See Fire

by vices_and_virtues



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt No Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-20
Updated: 2013-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-05 06:59:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1090967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vices_and_virtues/pseuds/vices_and_virtues
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, all he can see is fire. The world is ablaze, and he is the one expected to put out the flames. Written for day one of Levi Week.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I See Fire

**Author's Note:**

> Don't let the relationship tag fool you, it's not actually shippy at all.  
> I wrote this for day one of Levi Week, the prompt being a song that reminds you of him. I chose "I See Fire," by Ed Sheeran, and I hope you'll be able to see why.

Sometimes, all he can see is fire.

The world is ablaze, and he is the one expected to put out the flames. Sometimes he doesn't mind. Sometimes he does.

Sometimes it makes him angry. Other times he just can't be bothered to care. He's used to it now.

Sheets burn. He watches, silent, impassive. He doesn't feel, he has long since stopped feeling. It's easier to let others do it for him. Hanji cries enough for the both of them, behind the doors of her room or the lab, deep into the night when she thinks he can't hear.

She hasn't said much since their return. Neither has he. He'd lost track of Mike some time ago, and he really doesn't think he can deal with Erwin right now, and so by some unspoken agreement, he has yet to leave Hanji's side and she has yet to even attempt shaking him off, and even now he stands closer than strictly necessary to her as they watch the fire. They're too close to it, he knows, but the feel of heat on his skin helps him to remember that he is alive, and so he doesn't move away.

He wonders, briefly, whose stupid idea it was to burn sheets in place of the bodies lost anyway. At least with the bodies he could imagine the remains flying farther and farther away, away from this hell they lived in. Now the only ashes left behind would be of some silly, irrelevant lengths of cloth that he can't take seriously, he could never take seriously.

He looks away from the flames that rise up into the night. There is a familiar darkness creeping up inside him, but he can't let it take over, not just yet. It makes him reckless, insane, sadistic, and he'd do things. Chances were slim he'd survive if he took on the Female Titan alone, and although he doesn't think his death would be such a bad thing right now, especially not if he could take that bitch down with him - and if he were going do die, then he'd better, _dammit_ , he'd burn and she'd burn with him, whoever the hell she was - he knows that him being gone would kill those he'd leave behind - Hanji and Erwin and Mike, and he can't do that to them. He can't make them go through what he's dealing with now; it would royally fuck them up, and he _can't do that_.

There is also humanity to think about, and he can almost see it, see everything come crashing down as Titans swarm, the screams of the people as the shadow of death looms over them. It's beautiful, really.

But here and now, all he sees is fire, and it's everywhere. Inside these walls that cage them. Burning through the trees of the forest where his squad died. Carving out the spirits of the few people he has left. It's even in the air, the blood-soaked sheets now embers and ashes dancing as they are caught in the breeze.

He hopes the dead remember him, wherever they are.


End file.
